Identification and determination of the major constituents in traditional Chinese medicine Longdan Xiegan Pill by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS

A novel and sensitive HPLC-UV method has been developed for the simultaneous determination of twelve major compounds in Longdan Xiegan Pill. The chemical profile of the twelve compounds, including geniposidic acid (1), geniposide(2), gentiopicroside(3), liquiritin(4), crocin(5), baicalin(6), wogonoside(7), baicalein(8), glycyrrhizic acid (9), wogonin (10), oroxylin A (11) and aristolochic acid A (12), was acquired using high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector coupled with an electrospray tandem mass spectrometer (HPLC-DAD-ESI-MS). The analysis was performed on a Dikma Platisil ODS C(18) column (250 mm × 4. 6 mm, 5 μm) with a gradient solvent system of acetonitrile-0. 1% aqueous formic acid. The validation was carried out and the linearities (r > 0. 9996), repeatability (RSD<1. 8%), intra- and inter-day precision (RSD< 1. 3%), and recoveries (ranging from 96. 6% to 103. 4%) were acceptable. The limits of detection (LOD) of these compounds ranged from 0.29 to 4. 17 ng. Aristolochic acid A, which is the toxic ingredient, was not detected in all the batches of Longdan Xiegan Pill. Furthermore, hierarchical cluster analysis was used to evaluate the variation of the herbal prescription. The proposed method is simple, effective and suitable for the quality control of this traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).